left-handed player looking to convert a righty guitar

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jsierles

Posts: 34
Joined: Apr. 16 2006

left-handed player looking to conver...

Hello,

I'm currently looking at some practice guitars to buy and convert for lefty. I don't really know much about this or how I would go about it. I currently play a crappy travel guitar on which I just reversed the plastic pieces.

I see a lot of posts here about tools and such, but not for 'total beginners'. I also travel a lot and don't have a place to do the work. I'd be interested in learning about what options exist for 'pre-made' pieces for lefties, if they exist, and how much work it would take to get them usable.

Would it be best to visit a luthier in person about it? I figured it would seem like a waste of time for a cheap guitar conversion for a pro luthier.

I also read that some brands like Alhambra offer 'off-the-shelf' lefty setups.

Any opinions on this subject are appreciated.

Thanks!

Joshua Sierles
http://tomaflamenco.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 18 2011 14:41:50

XXX

Posts: 4400
Joined: Apr. 14 2005

RE: left-handed player looking to co... (in reply to jsierles)

quote:

ORIGINAL: jsierles
I'd be interested in learning about what options exist for 'pre-made' pieces for lefties, if they exist, and how much work it would take to get them usable.

The work is fairly doable. Just buy some bones (not plastic!) or use the original ones and file them to your needs. I wonder how you played on your travel guitar, if you only reversed the bones without filing them?

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Фламенко

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 18 2011 15:36:07

Gimar Yestra

Posts: 298
Joined: Jan. 19 2011
From: The Netherlands

RE: left-handed player looking to co... (in reply to jsierles)

on a classical or flamenco you can just switch around the strings, you dont realy have to worry about intonation etc. Though you might need to refile the nut a little bit to keep the thickest strings from sticking.

You could bring it by a luthier, all he would have to do is file the nut, or in the worst case, make a new nut. other than that, you can restring the guitar yourself obviously.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 18 2011 15:46:12

Steve Wright

Posts: 120
Joined: May 11 2011
From: Scotland Fife UK

RE: left-handed player looking to co... (in reply to jsierles)

Hi Josh, don't know what sort of budget you are thinking of, but Sharon Isbin plays a travel guitar http://www.sharonisbin.com/guitars.html which might suit you.

Basically, on an acoustic, then nut may need some slots widened, however, keep in mind that the saddle should already be ok for intonation, so no need to turn it around in haste. You might find though that the saddle needs some height adjustment as low/bass strings tend to slap around - and where your bass strings were, the high string will be (1st & 2nd) and they may now be a little high.

You have to simply try swapping the strings around and see how it plays and how you like it. Personally, I hate the action being different on each guitar I play, and you just need to make the practice guitar personal to you. Then you can tell everyone it's customised.

_____________________________

Rhythm, grace & passion. El ritmo, gracia & la pasión
Be the change you want to see in this world - Gandhi

http://www.youtube.com/user/FusionMusic1000

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 18 2011 17:56:34

BarkellWH

Posts: 3458
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC

RE: left-handed player looking to co... (in reply to jsierles)

The topic of left-handed guitars interests me. I have been left-handed all my life. I write left-handed; play squash holding the racquet in the left hand; and as a kid I played baseball, throwing the ball with the left hand. None of this could I then, nor can I now, do well with the right hand.

Nevertheless, when my father bought me my first guitar, when I was 17, I learned to play it right-handed, and it seemed as natural as writing with my left hand did. It just seemed completely natural to work the fretboard with my left hand and strum and play the strings with my right hand, even though I was strongly left-handed.

Question for anyone with a similar experience or an idea of what this is about. Is my experience, described above, unique? Do most lefties feel more comfortable playing the strings with the left hand, in which case I am some sort of wierd aberration? (Note: I have been called worse!) Or is the guitar itself unique, in that if one starts out playing it right-handed it can seem just as natural (as it did for me) to a left-hander as to a right-hander?

Cheers,

Bill

_____________________________

And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."

--Rudyard Kipling

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 18 2011 19:17:32

Steve Wright

Posts: 120
Joined: May 11 2011
From: Scotland Fife UK

RE: left-handed player looking to co... (in reply to BarkellWH)

Hi Bill, I'm right handed and I have always wondered why it is that we do complex work with our left hand on the guitar. I found it very hard to learn. My fingers just didn't want to go where the brain told it to go - so much so that early on I had to physically use my right hand to place the left hand fingers into chord positions. Thank goodness I don't have to do that now. I think your approach to the guitar is the correct approach for a left-handed person, but perhaps this topic will disclose something different.

_____________________________

Rhythm, grace & passion. El ritmo, gracia & la pasión
Be the change you want to see in this world - Gandhi

http://www.youtube.com/user/FusionMusic1000

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 18 2011 19:41:59

XXX

Posts: 4400
Joined: Apr. 14 2005

RE: left-handed player looking to co... (in reply to BarkellWH)

Mixed handedness is something common, especially in lefties. I am only 60% lefthanded

But I use the left hand for writing so I would call myself lefty.

You are right about that many lefties do not have problems playing a right handed guitar. But I must add, in too many cases this is not because they COMPARED both ways of playing with an appropriate guitar and chose the way which suited them better (something which I DID, with my cousin's guitar). I am a bit speculating here but I think it is a minority of lefties who picked a right handed guitar because playing left handed felt unnatural. Proably it was more like with me and scissors. I cannot use scissors with my left hand. Since being a child I use right handed scissors with my right hand. This is because right handed scissors are simply uncomfortable to use with the left hand. Now scissors are very unimportant to me so I didnt care, but with guitar I wanted to pick the best solution right from the start. Besides, who doesnt want to hold the guitar like Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain or Paul McCartney, those are all cool guys, except Paul McCartney.

Steve, I agree the "frethand" being a bottleneck in guitar playing. But its doable. In any case, practice is the key. I never considered those theories about dominant hand. I mean after all, if the hand matters so much, you can still reverse the strings and see if it works out for you, if you are really determined about using your dominant hand for fretting.

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Фламенко

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 18 2011 20:18:19

Steve Wright

Posts: 120
Joined: May 11 2011
From: Scotland Fife UK

RE: left-handed player looking to co... (in reply to XXX)

quote:

I am only 60% lefthanded

Mmmmm. think I'm 50% left-handed and maybe 50% right-handed. Or it could be the other way around. Now I forgot Hendrix was a lefti. I didn't think he was that good at Flamenco. It sounded a bit fuzzy to me. Paul McCartney - is he the guy that smoked the pipes of peace with Stanley Clarke? Now Deniz, you shouldn't make those cutting remarks with your right-handed scissors, you make me fret.

Sorry, it must be the orange I'm drinking.

Joking aside, after 37 years I am still right-handedly biased. When I play drums/percussion, my weak hand is the left. It plays less strokes. This is of course the custom, but any good percussionist actually masters the art of getting his weak hand as strong as the dominant hand. I play a bit of tabla and this really finds my left hand out. Perhaps another 37 years on the left hand may cure it.

It's good to hear from someone who actually made the choice to see which was best at the start. I did convert a right to left in the 70's for a friend, but I found it difficult.

_____________________________

Rhythm, grace & passion. El ritmo, gracia & la pasión
Be the change you want to see in this world - Gandhi

http://www.youtube.com/user/FusionMusic1000

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 18 2011 21:09:39

BarkellWH

Posts: 3458
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC

RE: left-handed player looking to co... (in reply to Steve Wright)

Probably the most interesting person to play a right-handed guitar left handed was the early American folk and blues singer Elizabeth Cotten. What really made her unique is that she played without converting the strings for left-handed playing, i.e., she just played a right-handed guitar upside down as a left-hander, with the trebles on top and the bass strings on the bottom. Her method of playing, alternating bass with her fingers while playing melody with her thumb, is still known as "Cotten Picking."

Cheers,

Bill

_____________________________

And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."

--Rudyard Kipling

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 18 2011 21:25:43

BarkellWH

Posts: 3458
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC

RE: left-handed player looking to co... (in reply to BarkellWH)

Just to follow up on my previous post about Elizabeth Cotten, there are several YouTube videos of her playing. One shows her with a young Pete Seeger, and she is singing "Freight Train." There are some close-up shots of her left-hand playing the upside-down guitar. Really amazing how she did it.

Cheers,

Bill

_____________________________

And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."

--Rudyard Kipling

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 18 2011 21:41:21

jsierles

Posts: 34
Joined: Apr. 16 2006

RE: left-handed player looking to co... (in reply to jsierles)

Thanks for the tips, I'll just try filing myself and see how it goes. What kind of file does one use for bone? On my travel guitar I just turned the saddle around and the strings kinda fit into the nut. On a $60 guitar it didn't seem to matter.

The Cotten videos are great! This reminds me of all the times I have to play flamenco upside-down (can be done more or less).

I think all lefties should learn the right-handed way. In the years I've lived in Spain I can't count the number of times I've had to play upside-down or got stuck having the only guitar. It's just a pain in random juergas, testing guitars in shops and so on. Upside-down playing is fun but frustrating!

That said, one time in Granada I was in a peña and there were 5 left handed guitarists, some of whom include flamencologists like Jose Manuel Gamboa and Norberto Torres. It was pretty interesting to hear their similar stories. One plus is that you occasionally get the opportunity to not have your guitar taken away no matter how bad you are! :)

Joshua Sierles
http://tomaflamenco.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Sep. 19 2011 0:01:40